Silicon Valley-based storage-centric IT vendor NetApp has entered into an agreement to buy Akorri Networks, a provider of data center management software for performance capacity analytics for virtualized and shared IT infrastructures.

The acquisition is a way for NetApp to win more business in the market for solutions that enable customer transition to virtualized and cloud environments. Massachusetts-based Akorri's product helps identify performance bottlenecks and improve storage capacity planning.

Manish Goel, executive VP of product operations at NetApp, said the acquisition was a way to address a common obstacle customers face in transitioning to virtualized environments: ability to accurately predict and manage performance and capacity requirements.

"Akorri further strengthens NetApp's data management capabilities to achieve greater quality of service and performance in their virtual and cloud environments," Goel said.

"With these enhanced capabilities, customers can accelerate their transition to a shared IT infrastructure so that they can use IT as a tool to capitalize on new growth opportunities and spend fewer resources managing their environments."

One of the ways NetApp plans to go to market with Akorri products is extending the buyer's OnCommand storage management software with performance capacity analytics to enhance visibility across the IT stack.

NetApp expects to close the all-cash transaction early in the company's fourth fiscal quarter, which starts in February. The buyer did not disclose financial terms of the agreement.